Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/54

14 At Besherri I tried vaccination, but I found that the inhabitants were not affected by the operation, the vaccine matter producing no pustules, and I was told that none of them caught the small-pox, because their cows have sometimes the cow-pox, the origin of which is caused by the change of climate. The inhabitants of the higher regions pass the winter, together with their cattle, in the plains of Sgorta, not far from Tripoli, Hence I infer that the inhabitants of Besherri, through being in continual contact with their cattle, as cows, &c., become infected with the disease, and are thus preserved from human contagion. A quite distinct disease, occurring frequently on the Lebanon, is the so-called habbet-ul-kei, which is a sort of gangrenous ulcer, but very different from the endemic sore at Aleppo and Bagdad, called Butone d' Aleppo, an ulcer which seems to have a preference for the cheeks of fair young ladies,lasting twelve months, and leaving an ugly scar, but not dangerous. The habbet-ul-kei, on the contrary, appears as a small pustule, is very acute, and endangers life ; it occurs in the interior as well as on the exterior parts of the body, for which reason it is often difficult to be recognized ; but as soon as it is recognized,the healing of it may instantly be effected with the cautery, be it internal or external. That is the reason why, on the Lebanon, so many children are seen on whose forehead the cauterium actuale was applied as a preventive. If this ulcer appears on the surface, for instance on the face, where an inflamed pimple arises, which is at the beginning of a red or bluish color, and afterwards becomes black, like a carbuncle, then life is in danger, if not attended to betimes, i e., by burning and destroying it with a red-hot iron ; for that reason it is called habbet-ul-kei, that is to say — " ulcer to be burned." It is said, that the bursting of the pimple being heard at the moment of the operation, is a good omen of the success of the cure.

In the Agosta, in the province of Kesroan, there occurred a case, which rendered me really ashamed of our imperfect medical knowledge.